Sexual Harassment In Nigeria -By Okemefula Okorafor Nwosu

Sexual harassment defined under Wikipedia ‘is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones including the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favours. In Nigeria sexual harassment has been a major topic of concern in our society. This coming from the #METOO movement and the #TIMESUP online allegations of perceived sexual harassment from major industry leaders and CEO’s down to the managing directors of firms and even to people in position of authority such as pastors and priests. Women unfortunately but not entirely get to face the brunt of this action though many men have come forward in Nigeria to lay the same complaint.

Are there laws in Nigeria to checkmate sexual harassment? What are the steps taken by our legal system to prohibit acts of sexual harassment? How and when can a victim of sexual harassment seek redress in the law court? What constitutes sexual harassment in the Nigerian society? How effective are the laws in preventing the occurrences of sexual harassment? 

A prominent case of sexual harassment in Nigeria is the Ejikemaduka(MRS) v Microsoft. Mrs Maduka a former employee of Microsoft Nigeria ltd sued her former employer of Microsoft Nigeria ltd together with its parent company Microsoft corporations. Her grouse among other things was that the employment contract was wrongfully terminated on the ground that she refused to succumb to the sexual advances of her boss the Chief Executive Officer of the company. Consequently she sought together with other reliefs a declaration that the termination of her employment amounted to an infringement of her rights to dignity and freedom from discrimination. The court found that the respondent tickled and touched Mrs Maduka and some other female workers in the office against their will despite their protests and the court held that the sexual harassment of Mrs Maduka was an infringement of her fundamental right to dignity of human person and freedom from discrimination. The court also held that by the inaction and silence of Microsoft Nigeria and Microsoft corporation, both companies tolerated and ratified the acts of the Chief Executive Officer. Accordingly both companies were held liable in damages for not taking utmost care to ensure that the employee fundamental right to freedom from discrimination and degrading treatment in the workplace was not violated.

 Also in Pastor Abimbola Patricia Yakubu v Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Pastor Mrs Yakubu claimed that she was at various times subjected to incessant seductive and unwelcome gestures from her boss including outrageous marriage proposals notwithstanding that he was fully aware that she was married. However when she declined he made her work in hostile circumstances many times late into the night with no justifiable reasons and when she declined his sexual advances he took steps to frustrate her employment by first transferring her to Kaduna and forcing her to report to a junior officer. Her employment was subsequently terminated without fair hearing or just cause. The court held that the claimant right to human dignity and self-worth was violated by the 2^nd defendant and awarded the sum of 5000000(five million naira) in favour of the claimant and also expressed disappointed in which the employer cordoned the acts of the 2^nd defendant and stated that it would have awarded damages against the defendant but could not do so in view that the fact that the claimant did not ask for it.

In Nigeria it is important to note the legal frame safe guarding the rights of women in their work places. In the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as amended it may not be out of line to say Nigerian laws on sexual harassment especially in work place seems inadequate.it can be argued that few positions of the law deals squarely on sexual harassment or any kind of sexual harassment during and before employment.. The closest is the employee compensation act 2010 which provides for compensation to a worker as a result to a sudden and unexpected traumatic event arising out of or in the course of the employee’s employment. The Nigerian labour law is also silent in issues of workplace harassment and that has left many sexually harassed victims out of options for legal redress available to them. However it is incorrect to say no remedies are afforded to women under the Nigeria law this is because the Nigerian constitution contains provisions relating workplace sexual harassment under section 34 of the Nigerian constitution which talks about the dignity of the human person and in effect to a bridge of that right, a woman can seek remedy in court of a competent jurisdiction. It is also right to say a woman’s right to work with dignity are also universally recognized under the international human rights conventions and treaties that Nigeria is a party of and such laws has been domesticated in Nigeria. It is also said that every woman has the right to practise any profession or to carry on any lawful occupation, trade or business which includes a right to a safe environment, free from sexual harassment. Furthermore in Nigeria the national industrial court included in its civil procedure rules lists four categories of acts that constitute work place harassment which includes;

1.  Physical conducts of a sexual nature such unwanted ranging from touching to sexual assault to rape. In addition strip search by or in the presence of the opposite sex and further gestures that connotes sexual harassment.

2.  A verbal form of sexual harassment such as unwelcome innuendos, sexual advances, comments with sexual undertones, sexual jokes and graphic comments about some one’s body, unwanted and irrelevant enquiries about someone sexual life, unwanted whistling and any document, material or exhibit that support the following claims.

3.  A non-verbal form of sexual harassment that is unwelcomed gestures, indecent exposures, unwelcome display of sexual images or pictures.

4.  Quid pro quo harassment. Where an owner, employer, supervisor, manager and co employee undertakes or attempts to influence the process of employment, promotion, training, discipline, dismissal or salary increments of an employee or job applicant in exchange for sexual favours.

A woman filing for sexual harassment can likely succeed if she can rightly prove the following; physical contact of a sexual nature, verbal form of harassment, a non-verbal form of harassment, and where the owner, employer, co-worker, supervisor or manager attempts to influence the process of employment, training, discipline, salary increment, dismissal etc. in exchange for a sexual favour in nature. Also a review of the NIC( National Industrial Court) rules reveals that asking for sex in exchange for a benefit, repeatedly asking for a date and not taking no for an answer, strip search by or in the presence of the opposite sex, making unnecessary physical contact including unwanted touching, using rude and insulting languages and calling women sex specific derogatory names, sharing and posting pornographic materials, making sexual jokes etc. any worker who suffers from this can institute an action and seek money compensations, damages and injunctions. This NIC civil procedure rules is helpful as it defines what amount to work place sexual harassment, and makes sexual harassment an actionable offence and also provides a guide of how to prove sexual harassment in Nigeria law courts.

Furthermore in Nigeria, Lagos a state in the country the criminal law of Lagos prohibits harassment that implicitly or explicitly affects a person’s employment or educational opportunity or unreasonable interference with the persons work or educational opportunity or performance or creates an intimidating or hostile condition both in the learning and also working environment. In addition any person found guilty of committing sexual harassment has committed a crime and may be liable to be imprisoned for three years.

Also the tertiary educational institutions prohibition act 2016 (sexual harassment act or popularly known as SHA) states under section 3 recognizes the existence of relationship between an authority and dependant, between an educator and student in an institution breach of which is unlawful and a sexual harassment offence, also it is extensively defined in Section 4 which states the demanding of sexual intercourse from a student in exchange for a passing mark, grabbing, hugging, stroking and pinching any body part of a student and also whistling, or winking at a student or making sexually complimentary remarks about a student physic is unlawful. If convicted the individual is liable to be sentenced and imprisoned of up to 5years but not less than 2 years.

In as much as we laud the achievements of the above mentioned law as a great victory in the fight for sexual harassment, in Nigeria a survey showed that among Nigerian female tertiary and university students 40% have been reported to have witnessed and faced or known someone face sexual harassment in their schools or university. In Nigeria going forward I recommend it be adopted in all spheres of life including work places, religious establishments, client and professional relationships etc.

The major take away of these cases shows that the court would not hesitate to award damages to both the employer and the employee that committed the act. This is because the responsibility is on the employer to provide a safe and conducive place for the employees and to ensure preventive measures are put in place to prevent such occurrence.

In Conclusion, in such light the employers are to take pro steps to ensure the work place is free from all forms of sexual harassment and can be done by having zero tolerance for sexual harassment, continuous review of anti-sexual harassment policies, creating a conducive working environment where workers can report sexual abuse and not feel victimized, periodic training and re training on sexual harassment awareness and setting up independent committees and boards to handle and deal with sexual harassment reported cases. In conclusion I think its effective to say that it more cost effective to prevent sexual harassment than to face the risk of legal action and redress which leads to compensations, damages and sometimes imprisonment.

About Author

A legal practitioner and keen human rights activist. I can be reached via email okemefulaon1@gmail.com